Sports shorts: WHS field hockey team opens with win

LONDONDERRY — The Winnacunnet High School field hockey team began its defense of its two-time Division I championship with a 2-0 victory over Londonderry on Wednesday.

LONDONDERRY — The Winnacunnet High School field hockey team began its defense of its two-time Division I championship with a 2-0 victory over Londonderry on Wednesday.

The Warriors received two second-half goals from Mimi MacLeod, with assists to Abby Marchell and Megan Chase.

Haley Morancy had one save in goal for the Warriors.

in OT for Traip field hockey

KITTERY, Maine — Sarah Noble scored two goals and Ashleigh Roberts had one as the Traip Academy field hockey team beat Poland, 3-2, in overtime in this Western Maine Class C contest.

Kaylie Andrews had two assists for the Rangers, while Emily Bolton had four saves. Midfielders Ashley Caldwell and Kendra Kagiliery both played well for Traip.

girls past Lebanon

LEBANON — Shanley King scored the game-winning goal as the St. Thomas Aquinas girls soccer team defeated Lebanon, 2-1, in its Division II contest season-opener

Lilly Radack also scored for the Saints, while teammates Dani Kalmbach and Casey Sharpe both played well.

GREENLAND — Cam Farrell carded a 5-over-par 37 as the St. Thomas Aquinas junior varsity golf team shot a 197 and beat Portsmouth (223) and Oyster River (231) in a three-team match at Bramber Valley Golf Course.

Alex Shea led Portsmouth with a 43, while Jimmy Gonsalves (44), Sam Gratton (45) and Pat Jardine (45) rounded out the Clipper lineup.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kim Clijsters' singles career ended where she wanted it to, just not the way she hoped.

The four-time Grand Slam champion lost 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to 18-year-old Laura Robson of Britain in the second round of the U.S. Open on Wednesday, and will head into retirement after she finishes playing in doubles at Flushing Meadows.

Clijsters walked away from the sport once before, in May 2007, then returned after a 2 1/2-year hiatus. But now 29 and a mother, the Belgian insisted this season that she means it this time, and decided the U.S. Open — and its hard courts that she conquered on the way to three championships — would be her final tournament.

"It's the place that has inspired me so much to do well and to do great things. It's hard to explain sometimes why," Clijsters said in an on-court interview, her face flushed and her eyes welling with tears.

"This completely feels like the perfect place to retire," Clijsters told the spectators at Arthur Ashe Stadium, many of whom rose to shower her with a standing ovation. "I just wish it wasn't today."

She missed the hard-court major in 2004, 2006-08 and last year, thanks to a combination of injuries and the time she took off while starting a family. Her daughter, Jada, was born in February 2008. By August 2009, Clijsters was back on tour; unseeded and unranked, because she only played in two previous tournaments during her comeback, she won that year's U.S. Open.

"Since I retired the first time, it's been a great adventure for my team and my family," said Clijsters, who was 28-0 against players ranked outside the top 10 at the U.S. Open before Wednesday. "It's all been worth it. But I do look forward to the next part of my life coming up."

Her previous defeat at Flushing Meadows came against Belgian rival Justine Henin on Sept. 6, 2003, in the tournament final. Robson was 9 at the time.

This did have the feel, in some ways, of a changing of the guard.

Ranked 89th, and with only one prior victory over a top-25 player, Robson has been viewed — particularly back home in Britain — as an up-and-coming player whose smooth left-handed strokes would carry her far.

But she had never produced the kind of grit and court-covering athleticism that carried her past Clijsters. And until now, Robson never had won more than one match in a Grand Slam tournament.

She knows, though, how much Clijsters means to the game, not only as a superb player but as someone who by all accounts is universally liked — by fans, tennis officials and even opponents.

When the contest ended with Clijsters sailing a backhand return long, allowing Robson to convert her third match point, they met at the net. Clijsters began to extend her arm for the customary handshake, and Robson pulled her in for a hug.

"I want to thank Kim," Robson told the crowd moments later, "for being such a great role model to me for so many years."

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